Off the rim.

Nuggets' Issel Works His Way To The Top

He was just another big ol' farm boy back in the 1960s out there in the gently rolling farmland of Batavia and the Fox Valley. Dan Issel only dreamed then.

Last week, it all became real when Issel was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

"I think when you first start playing basketball, you might let yourself dream about being an All-American or being a professional basketball player," said Issel, the gangly 6-foot-9-inch kid who wasn't supposed to achieve any of this. "But you don't dream about something like this happening. I didn't even know there was a basketball Hall of Fame. It's the ultimate any basketball player can attain."

Issel, who just finished his first season as coach of the improved Denver Nuggets, became a first team All-American at Kentucky, co-rookie of the year in the old American Basketball Association, a six-time All-Star and is among the top five all-time scorers with ABA and NBA statistics combined. He was enshrined with, among others, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Bill Walton, Calvin Murphy and Walt Bellamy.

"When I first started playing basketball," said Issel, who had 65 friends and family members at the ceremony, "I just wanted to someday make the Batavia High School team. Letting my dreams run wild, I dreamed about playing on the varsity.

"Coach (Adolph) Rupp at Kentucky was the one who instilled in me the work ethic that got me where I eventually wound up," Issel said. "Obviously, my folks started that process, and my high school coach, Don Vandersnick, continued it. But it was Coach Rupp who really showed me where I could go if I were willing to work harder than the other guy."

And it paid off.

Pippen surgery: Last summer, it was the world for Bulls stars and Olympians Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. This summer, it could be the ward, as in hospital. Both surely will need recuperation time from their succession of injuries, and Bulls insiders say Pippen probably will have surgery to correct longstanding problems with his right ankle. . . . Stacey King's more spirited playoff play may pay off in a deal. Although the Bulls do not talk about specific players in deals during the playoffs, one general manager who has talked with the Bulls laid the groundwork for a deal for King or one of the Bulls' restricted free-agent centers, Will Perdue and Scott Williams. . . . Credit Bulls coach Phil Jackson for raising his level of coaching in the playoffs as the players raise their level of play. Jackson's defensive strategies have befuddled Cleveland's Lenny Wilkens, a terrific coach. Jackson always seems to bring some new strategy wrinkle to each playoff series. Bulls insiders say he has been almost salivating about a strategy directed at the New York Knicks.

Flat note: The Utah Jazz's Jeff Malone, the supposed answer a few years back to their monotonous John Stockton-Karl Malone offense, thinks he may be gone after another Jazz playoff flop.

"I hope to be back next year," said Malone, who shot 44.6 percent in the playoffs, his third-worst percentage in eight playoffs. "But this is a business, and you never know about being traded. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to make some changes."

Tough year: The Portland Trail Blazers, a first-round victim after two NBA Finals appearances in the last three seasons, are due for an overhaul. Kevin Duckworth, who played just 58 minutes in the 3-1 loss to San Antonio, is prepared.

"I'm ready to go," he says.

Clyde Drexler may be going, too. Cliff Robinson seems safe, but the Trail Blazers still are shaking their heads over his 16-for-61 shooting and 9 for 22 from the free-throw line. And again Portland showed its inability to close games, going scoreless for 3 minutes at the end of Game 1, 3 minutes at the end of Game 3 and 4 minutes at the end of Game 4.

"We were slow getting to spots, slow getting into everything we wanted to run," Terry Porter said. "To finish like this after the success we've had the last three years is difficult. I don't know what to think."

One has to feel for coach Rick Adelman, one of the league's gentleman, whose father died the week the playoffs began, who took in two children when his wife's sister was killed in a car accident during the season, whose son has had serious kidney problems and who suffered through the team's alleged sex scandal in Salt Lake City during the season. So excuse him if he doesn't think the first-round defeat is a tragedy.

Johnson comes back: Phoenix's recovery against the Lakers and quick start against the San Antonio Spurs has a lot to do with Kevin Johnson's return. Without Johnson's pressure on top of the floor, Los Angeles Lakers guards shot 60 percent in the first two games with Johnson limping and then 35 percent in the last three with him healthy.